George Bailey: The quiet achiever from Australia
As aficionados, when we envisage Australian batsmen at the crease, the image that immediately flashes in everyone’s mind is of a player who bats with swagger, and has that imperious touch to send shivers through the opposition camp. As a keen cricket enthusiast, I still remember Australia’s former captain, Ricky Ponting, snarling and sledging at the gentle giant, Srinath, for smashing his helmet with a brute of a bouncer at MCG in 99/00. On that occasion, Ponting seemed to be the vicious and mean fast bowler, with Srinath being the terrified batsman.
Australia’s stand-in skipper in one-day internationals, and middle order batsman, George Bailey, doesn’t fit into the mould of a typical Australian cricketer. With that polite and dignified smile at a presentation ceremony, he isn’t your quintessential hard-nosed Australian skipper. If we scratch the surface though, underneath, one can sense a cricketer who is fiercely determined, and even in the toughest of situations, assuages a young side with a touch of calm countenance.
It was only last year that Australian selectors sent shock waves through the cricketing world by appointing Bailey as the captain of the T20 side. Former greats of Australia panned the selectors left and right for picking what they thought was a journeyman batsman. Some of them even ridiculed Bailey, and reckoned he was a non-playing captain.
Yes, it is true that the appointment of Bailey as the captain of Australia came out of the blue. Even those who have followed Sheffield Shield, and Australia’s domestic one-day games with dedication and devotion, struggle to remember him playing too many eye-catching knocks for Tasmania. The one knock I vividly remember reading about was his backs-to-the-wall gritty century against Western Australia at Perth in 05/06 that helped Tasmania to clinch a nerve-wracking two wicket win. He has definitely been a touch inconsistent in Sheffield Shield.
One suspects his rapid rise to leading the Australian side in the shorter formats of the game was more to do with how well the mettlesome Bailey led Tasmanian Tigers to a famous triumph in the FR cup in 09/10. Bailey also seemed to thrive as a batsman, while shouldering the additional responsibility of captaining the side. His record of 538 runs at an impressive average of 59.77 gives us ample proof of how Bailey carved a niche for himself as a one-day batsman during that season in 09/10.